ICC names first two Darfur suspects

Feb 27, 2007 (AMSTERDAM) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor named the first two suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday, a former state interior minister and a militia commander.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summons against Ahmed Haroun, state minister of interior during the height of the conflict, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdelrahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.

In a written filing, he said there was reason to believe that the two “bear criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur in 2003 and 2004”.

Experts say some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million others driven from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government, charging it with neglect. Khartoum says about 9,000 people have died.

(Reuters)